And you don't even need the AppleTalk module for AFP. (I don't think modern macOS even supports AppleTalk anymore.) AppleTalk only comes into play when you're dealing with really old Mac systems which didn't support AFP-over-TCP yet.
The kernel module implements the stuff described in the sections on EtherTalk and AppleTalk phase II on this [1] wiki page.
When the article mentioned AppleTalk I envisioned a way to get files off of my old SE using something that hooked into the ADB networking ports.
For your SE you could get an ethernet adapter that plugged into the SCSI port or a PDS card to go inside the case.